Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years From Now

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Fragility of Nature

The poem begins with a focus on the largest animals on earth: “Most likely you’ll think we hated the elephant” (Line 1). At the end of the poem, however, the speaker shifts focus, saying, “all the bees were dead” (Line 20), thus ending the poem with a revelation about one of the smaller insects. Olzmann’s choices here demonstrate that the life of the largest animals—elephants, whales, and humans—are dependent on some of the smallest insects: bees.

When this poem was first released in 2017, the bumblebee had been added to the endangered species list. It was one of many bee species that was already endangered. Unlike some other species, the death of the bee would have a noticeable, catastrophic effect on human beings. Bees pollinate flowers, which is necessary for the propagation of plants and the growth of crops that feed people and animals. If the bees die off, there will be no more gardens or food. As the title suggests, the earth could be vastly different within as little as 50 years.

The poem underscores what the destruction of populations like the bees will result in with a grim diagnostic: Within half a century, the speaker says, there will be “nothing” but chemicals and a few animals left eating “jet fuel and plastic” (Lines 5-6). This foreshadowing reveals not a subtle environmental degradation but a sudden shift with huge consequences.

By focusing on the bee, Olzmann draws attention to the fragility of nature and the interconnectedness of all species. Like any individual bee, nature can be easily overlooked, taken for granted, and intentionally or unintentionally destroyed. Whales and elephants are large creatures that are difficult to kill. Traditionally, it has taken whole hunting parties to bring one of these large creatures down. Still, the speaker mentions whale deaths as more than probability, saying whales will be “harpooned and hacked into extinction” (Line 4) by people who want to make use of their oil and meat. The bees will be destroyed through neglect, and through being overlooked as the climate changes and pollution destroys the bees’ ability to survive.

The poem emphasizes the multiple ways humans destroy the environment, actively killing large animals and unintentionally letting others go extinct. The poem speaks to the importance of reversing both neglect and over-dependence on certain species. It reminds the reader that their own life and ability to experience joy, such as with a “euphoria of flowers” (Line 17), depends on the almost invisible, fragile beings most people overlook every day, and on the preservation of animals who may seem larger and stronger than humans themselves.

Transcendence Through Nature and Human Connection

American Transcendentalists like Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and others turned towards nature as a way of connecting with the cosmos and eternity. This in turn allowed them to connect on a deeper level with humanity. Merriam-Webster defines transcendence as “extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience,” as well as “being beyond comprehension” (“Transcendent.” Merriam-Webster.com). The speaker of Olzmann’s poem, in writing to a person 50 years in the future, demonstrates a similar desire to American Transcendentalists to connect with nature and other generations on a deeper level.

One of the ways people traditionally connect with the past and future is through the environment. The speaker affirms this connection:

We still had the night sky back then,

and like our ancestors, we admired

its illuminated doodles

of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladles (Lines 9-12).

The scorpion outlines and “upside-down ladles” (Line 12) are constellations ancient Greeks named thousands of years ago. Though the ancient Greeks are long dead, their way of interpreting the night sky left an enduring reminder of who they were. The current generation can connect with the long-standing history of human thought by looking at the night sky and remembering those stories. If the night sky isn’t visible anymore, however, the next generation will lose some its connection to the past, and the past will lose its connection to the future.

It is through long-lasting natural markers like stars that humans experience transcendence. The speaker mentions this, saying, “[y]ou probably doubt that we were capable of joy / but I assure you we were” (Lines 7-8). The speaker attributes their joy to their ability to connect with and enjoy nature.

As the speaker notes in the second to last stanza, natural wonders such as flowers cause humans to ask the big questions:

There were bees back then, and they pollinated

a euphoria of flowers so we might

contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask,

‘Hey guys, what’s transcendence?’ (Lines 16-19).

Without flowers and bees, and the natural world flourishing as it has, humans will lose a vital method of transcending or engaging in deeper contemplation. The poem posits that without the flowers and ability to see the night sky, humans will no longer be able to experience transcendence.

Human Ignorance

The final lines use irony and the juxtaposition of the serious and the naive to create its final point:

I’m saying, it wasn’t all lead paint and sulfur dioxide.

There were bees back then, and they pollinated

a euphoria of flowers so we might

contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask,

‘Hey guys, what’s transcendence?’

And then all the bees were dead (Lines 15-20).

The penultimate line mimics the common speech of typical teenagers, but it directs attention to a topic of moral, religious, and spiritual profundity. The reader can infer that whoever asks this question does not know what transcendence is consciously but may have already experienced it while looking at natural elements like flowers. The person is ignorant of where their feelings come from, or else they have not attended to the development of their feelings. The poem draws attention to and even makes fun of the person’s ignorance and obliviousness with the line, “Hey guys, what’s transcendence?” (Line 19). By the time the person asks this, the bees, which make transcendence possible, are already dead. This use of dramatic irony allows the reader to see clearly what the character in this poem cannot. Their curiosity piqued too late.

According to the poem, the reader can infer that the bees died because the people in the present were not paying attention to the environmental dangers around them. They may have experienced a taste of transcendence and joy without knowing where those feelings came from. The humans took what they had for granted. The speaker does push back against this supposed ignorance, saying, “[w]e admired” the night sky (Line 10), clarifying that humans were not numb to the wonders of nature and were not intentionally trying to destroy the environment. Rather, they let it happen through ignorance or distraction. They don’t consider their own dependence on the health of the environment for physical and spiritual sustenance, and this lack of consideration is their downfall.

The “characters” of this poem are held up for ridicule because they do not know as much as the reader knows, which is that they are on the brink of extinction. At the same time, because the poem represents the current generation, it also confronts the contemporary reader with their own ignorance. The poem suggests that people in the current generation are acting like the comical figure who asks, “[h]ey guys, what’s transcendence?” (Line 19) while the bees are in danger. On the surface, the line is funny, characterizing the speaker of the line as ignorant and naïve, but the line also critiques contemporary society, showing them the potentially fatal consequences of their own ignorance and failure to act.